Biruté Galdikas

Along with Jane Goodall and the late Dian Fossey, Biruté Mary Galdikas is part of the legendary trio of female primatologists mentored by the late paleoanthropologist, Louis Leakey.

Galdikas has devoted the last 36 years to studying wild orangutans in Indonesian Borneo. Her work has resulted in millions of acres of tropical rain forest – the orangutan’s habitat – being protected as well as hundreds of wild-born ex-captive orangutans being rehabilitated and returned to the wild.

Considered the world’s leading expert on orangutans, Galdikas is Full Professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and the founding president of the Orangutan
Foundation International, headquartered in Los Angeles. She is the only non-Indonesian-born person to be honoured by the Indonesian government with the Kalpataru, its highest environmental achievement award.

She is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Professor Extraordinaire at the Universitas National, Jakarta, where she has trained over one hundred Indonesian students in conservation techniques.